The aim of this work is to develop a novel silicon etching method in the manufacturing of a silicon nozzle plate for a monolithic inkjet print head. The nozzle plate was etched by inductively coupled plasma (ICP) etching for orifice definition and wet etching for bulk surface definition. Depth of the wet etching process for thickness deviation of nozzle plate is less than 4 μm and the surface roughness is less than 40 Å. After the deep wet etching step with etching depth around 370μm and the ICP dry etching process, electrical characteristics of the driver circuits still work normally. The etching methods on silicon nozzle plate manufacture for monolithic inkjet print head in this study provide a better surface roughness of outlet surface of nozzle plate and keep the good thickness uniformity of nozzle plate.
Chi-Ming Huang, Chia-Tai Chen, Chou-Lin Wu, Lai-Chen Chen, Yung-Hsiang Wu, Ching-Yi Mao, Chun-Jung Chen, "A Novel Etching Method of Silicon Nozzle Plate Manufacture for Monolithic Inkjet Print Head" in Proc. IS&T Int'l Conf. on Digital Printing Technologies (NIP20), 2004, pp 889 - 892, https://doi.org/10.2352/ISSN.2169-4451.2004.20.1.art00079_2